The bully picking a fight with the wrong man is probably one of the most repeated scenarios in storytelling from Jack the Giant Killer through David and Goliath into modern day film and TV but it never fails to give us that oh so satisfying tingle down the back of the neck.
In the 1955 film noir “Bad Day at Black Rock” Spencer Tracy, as a one armed war vet, gives a nasty surprise to a vicious thug.
I was 14 when I saw this film in South London. For the rest of the week I was down in our cellar giving karate chops to imaginary villains.
It’s an atmospheric movie, a classic of the genre. Tracy was always spot on as the modest man of immense moral authority and Robert Ryan’s face was the perfect fit for the cowardly weasel who always manages to find some bonehead to do his dirty work for him.
It was also one of the very few Hollywood films that attempted to address the uncomfortable issue of the treatment of Japanese Americans during WW2
